Friday, April 24, 2015

Written by Jon Williams

This year is
shaping up to be a pretty big one for movies. Movies like Insurgent, Fifty Shades of Grey, and Furious 7 have already brought tons
of people to the box office, and others like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spectre,
and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (to
name just a very few) are still on the horizon. But that’s looking ahead.
Looking back, 2015 also sees a number of classic films celebrating significant
landmark anniversaries.

Going back to
1940, a handful of notable films are celebrating their 75th anniversary this
year. One is The
Grapes of Wrath, an adaptation of the classic John
Steinbeck novel of the same name, starring Henry Ford and John Carradine.
That was also a great year for Disney, which released the animated staples Fantasia and Pinocchio. Unfortunately, both of those titles are in Disney’s
vault at the moment, so if you already have copies of them on your shelves,
consider yourself lucky.

Moving
forward to 1965, some great and notable films are marking 50 years. Doctor
Zhivago is an all-time great film, a romance with the backdrop of World
War I and the Russian Revolution. For a
Few Dollars More (released in 1965 in Italy, but not until 1967 in
North America) is one of the Sergio Leone westerns that helped launch the
career of Clint Eastwood, a career that’s still going strong all these years
later. Thunderball (currently
unavailable, although the novel
by Ian Fleming is) was one of the first James Bond films to feature the
organization SPECTRE as the enemy; fitting, as that’s the title of the Bond
film releasing later this year. Finally, there’s The
Sound of Music, one of the quintessential movie musicals of all time,
which was recently released in a 50th
Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray that includes a ton of
bonus material in addition to the film.

So those are
the big landmark anniversaries—25, 50, and 75 years—for 2015. Anything in
particular catch your eye, or did we miss anything? And don’t forget, there are
plenty of great films celebrating other, not quite as grand anniversaries, such
as Rebel
Without a Cause (60 years), Jaws
(40 years), and Back
to the Future (30 years). You can find these great films are more on
our website.

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Midwest Tape is a full service DVD, music CD, and audiobook distributor,conducting business exclusively with public libraries since 1989.
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